Tuesday, March 04, 2014

Scoring Day 2 - Possible Protest

So, in the end the organizers decided to score Day 2 - the day that there were two goals. They scored the task by creating an “end of speed section” 6km out from the “goals”. At 6 kilometers out from either of the goals, no pilot could have seen the goal line and all pilots necessarily must have been flying their instruments to the edge of the cylinder. So, no one is advantaged or disadvantaged this way because every pilot who got within 6km of goal also made one of the 2 goals. Since no one could have seen the goal line from 6km out, no one can claim that they flew for the actual line and then had to divert to get into the coordinates (or vice versa). All times will be totally accurate minus the 6km end of speed section flight time (which doesn’t count anyway so long as the pilot still made goal). Maybe I’m missing something, but this seems quite fair to me.

Davis told me this morning that Jonny (and I think possibly Corinna too) will be protesting. That’s unfortunate really because I do believe this is a totally fair outcome and I hate to see a good solid task wasted. I have yet to speak with anyone who is able to present an argument as to why it isn’t totally fair to every pilot. I do realize that it isn’t following the rules to the letter of the law, but when it is 100% fair to everyone, I believe the letter of the law should be flexible. Just my two cents. If someone has a good argument as to why this isn’t 100% fair to every single pilot, I would love to hear it - honestly!

1 comment:

With regard the task in question (stopping it 6 kilometers out and trying to make everybody happy) there can be no doubt that some pilots were hurt and some got an unfair points advantage. Surely most pilots in a pre-world championship know how to set up a final glide to goal and what speeds to fly to get there fastest - or, at least their instruments do. Based on where they thought the goal was, that should certainly govern when they reached an arbitrary point designated after the fact. Maybe the pilots who knew the rules/task gained or lost points. Maybe the ignorant pilots gained or lost. Either way, changing the rules after the task has begun invalidates the contest. Better to invalidate a day than the whole contest. What possible satisfaction can there be in winning an invalid meet? It's only a few points, right, how important can that be? Well. years ago - about 25, yikes! - after family things, my life totally revolved around making the World Team (back then it was "World Team" and "WTSS"). After 2 years and 1200+ points, I was 2 points ahead of my good friend and wonderful person, Brad Koji. I got to go and he did not. If I thought I had gained an arbitrary or unfair 2 points, it would have taken away all the satisfaction. I am sure Brad felt exactly the same way and wished me well. My life has been full of incredible times, awards, positions, etc., etc., but still my personal proudest moment, once again excepting family things, was making that World Team. Fly-ins are great fun, too, but if it's a competition, the rules are the rules. Terry Reynolds